gave a first class presentation on the life and work the first Astronomer Royal for Scotland at the Central Library, George IV Bridge, Edinburgh last Wednesday.

A reporter for ‘The Scotsman’ was in the audience.

A member of the Astronomical Society of Edinburgh and the Calton Stakeholders Committee, Bruce has spent the last two years in the Royal Observatory’s library researching the history of the observatory on the Calton Hill.

Work is now underway to bring the building back to it’s former glory and it’s hoped that the observatory which houses the transit telescope used by the astronomers to calculate the time sent electrically to the time ball and the One o’Clock Gun will be open to the public.

We’re grateful for bringing our attention to the Watchman of Ystad who blows his copper horn to signal the time from 21.15 to 01.00 nightly from the tower of St:a Maria Church.

A single note is blown every fifteen minutes, to each of the town’s four cardinal points to assure the citizens that ‘All’s well’.

Although the tradition dates back many hundreds of years, no one knows exactly when the signal originated. It is known that a Watchman worked in the town during the 17th century when the present church tower was built.

Originally the Watchman’s job was to warn the townspeople of invasion by land or sea or report fires by blowing his horn.